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The man charged with rebuilding a shattered child welfare agency acknowledges there were gaping holes in the safety net at the Children's Aid Society of the County of Prince Edward.

Mark Kartusch is spearheading efforts to repair what has been exposed as lax safeguards at the agency and addressing a litany of damning systemic failures uncovered by a government probe. The findings of the investigation were acquired by The Intelligencer through a freedom of information request filed last June.

The troubling Ministry of Child and Youth Services report, completed in January, 2012, exposed a loosely-run agency repeatedly breaking ministry regulations and risking the well-being of children by placing them in improperly screened homes.

A trusted source with who reviewed the reports' findings and who was deeply knowledgeable about the County agency described the CAS there as a “fiefdom with Bill Sweet (PECAS executive director) at the helm,” controlling the broken levers.

Placement of children in homes with history of sexual assault complaints and hiding happenings from the ministry were just some of the troubling areas identified by the source.

“The result was a society and its employees acting in bubbles, a board in the dark about the multitude of concerns being raised and no safety net for the children,” the source said.

Kartusch said the uphill battle to fix things is rolling ahead.

“It's not a good picture,” Kartusch said. “It's terrible information. There were kids that were harmed in Prince Edward and that's not ok. We want to support the kids who have been victimized.”

Kartusch is assigned the daunting task of merging the dysfunctional PECAS with the Belleville-headquartered Highland Shores Children's Aid Society, where he serves as executive director.

“This is not the way kids and families deserve to be served and treated,” he said.

He worries a lost of trust in the society could deter the public from calling to seek assistance for children in harm.

“It's very troubling,” he said. “That's the worst thing that could happen. I am concerned that there is a lost of confidence in the society.”

He too is baffled as to how reckless practices at PECAS went unchecked for years until the ministry stepped in when the first of three foster parents were charged and convicted for molesting children in their care.

“It's amazing what a few bad processes can do to create problems within an organization when they stay for a long time,” he said.

As part of the decisive overhaul at Prince Edward CAS, several staff and board members, along with long-time executive director Sweet, have been replaced. Highland Shores also commissioned a private consultant to continue checks of a broken foster homes system.

“He's making sure there is nothing that we missed in any of the investigations,” Kartusch said.

Committees have been struck to enhance oversight and managers from Highland Shores will be job-shadowing PECAS employees to highlight weaknesses.

He said the destructive environment at PECAS is not “completely a thing of the past” but “it is very much along the way to be a thing of the past.”

“There are a number of things that have been addressed within that report since then,” he said. “Staff have worked on areas of deficiency and have moved them along substantially.”

A Picton judge delivered a stern rebuke from the bench about need for a public enquiry into the agency after he sentenced a Bloomfield couple, who had turned their home into a "sexual cult" while fostering 25 teenagers over the course of nine years. Justice Geoff Griffin slammed PECAS its ignorance toward happenings at the home.

"What took place here is so outrageous that it boggles the mind,” Griffin said in November 2011. “I hope the public demands there be an inquiry into what took place at the home."

Kartusch and his team continue to grapple with getting PECAS ready for a April 1 amalgamation, he views as paramount to salvaging the wreckage and saving the children now entrusted to the embattled agency.

The merger process started in November 2012. Kartusch is dedicated to “to turning the ship around.”

“I have to focus on moving forward and making sure nothing like that happens in my tenure,” he said.

He said merging with an agency nearing collapse was necessary “because we think it's the best thing for kids. There was a need to look after the children in that area.”

Merger talks were sparked by PECAS board members who admitted, “there is more here than we can deal with and we want to seek amalgamation with a partner who can do that.” Initial merger talks fell through when PECAS, under Sweet's leadership, inexplicably backed out of negotiations earlier in 2012.

Five of the seven PECAS board members from that time have been replaced with Highland Shores' selected individuals since November. Several new senior managers, including an interim director of services, have been appointed.